Literacy rate: The total percentage of the

population of an area at a particular time aged

seven years or above who can read and write
with understanding. Here the denominator is the
population aged seven years or more
The National Literacy Mission defines literacy as
acquiring the skills of reading, writing and
arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one's
day-to-day life.

• Kerala is the most literate state in India, with 90.86% literacy, followed closely by Mizoram at 88.80%.

• Bihar is the least literate state in India with 47% literacy. Several other social indicators of the two states are correlated with these rates,
such as life expectancy at birth, infant mortality per 1,000 live births (10 in Kerala, 61 in Bihar), birth rate per 1,000 people and death rate
per 1,000 people (6.4 in Kerala, 7.9 in Bihar)

• Ernakulam district in Kerala was the first district to reach the 100% literacy level in India

• Himachal Pradesh is a Himalayan state with lower social stratification than many other states, which enables social programs to be
carried out more smoothly. Once the Government of Himachal Pradesh was able to establish a social norm that "schooling is an essential
part of every child's upbringing, literacy as a normal attribute of life was adopted very rapidly

Kapil Sibal also reiterated his point that his ministry is in touch with Nandan Nilekani, the chief of Unique Identity Authority for an UID for every

single student.

"Nandan has told me that he will work with us."

Sibal also stressed the need for an education finance corporation, which will help refinancing education with a long-term goal and provide

education loans to all needy students.

All secondary schools in India will have a computer teacher each and the central government will bear the related expenses, Sibal said.

"We have now a policy. All schools will have an ICT (Information and Communications Technology) teacher. We will pay their salary, which is

Rs.10,000 per month," Sibal said to highlight the need for technology to better educational scenario in the country.

"We are open to any technology solution (provided by private sectors) but it should not be elitist. The real problem is in rural India
and we must keep that in mind. I think, the private sector can collaborate with government and train these ICT teachers," he said.
A quick China-India comparison with respect to enrolment in higher education is worthy of note. A look at the statistics indicates that the

• new enrolment for the Master's programme in engineering and management are about 125,000 and 45,000 in China respectively.

• However, in India the number of students enrolled in a Masters programme in engineering is about 20,000, of which the share of
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) is a mere 2,800.

• In management, the elite Indian Institute of Management (IIM) altogether have about 1,400 seats for the PGDBM (MBA)
programme.

• The number of students enrolled in PhD programmes in engineering and management

in China is about 22,000 and 5,000 respectively.

• India graduates less than 1,000 PhD students in engineering. Each IIM graduates on the average 5-7 FPM (PhD) students per year,
which makes it very inefficient to even conduct classes.

• This stark difference in numbers should set alarm bells ringing for the high-tech industries in India, which boast of huge
professional manpower as the reason for their growth and outsourcing opportunities.

• The main reason is the different models of higher education being pursued in these two countries. China has a system of
funding large public universities, similar to that in the US. For example, out of the 795 institutes that provide post-
graduate programmes in China, none is privately-owned. These institutions are funded by central ministries and local
educational departments.

• Researchers have empirically proved that economies of scale exist in higher education, especially in
postgraduate educational institutions. In a study on US PhD-granting institutes, the minimum efficient scale was
found to be between 11,000 and 30,000 students.

However, India depends merely on seven IITs and seven IIMs to make all the difference to higher education. In a welcome move, six more IITs
were set up in 2008 and three more are under consideration. However, these are neither large nor adequate to give quality education to the
approximately 138-million youth who are in the age range of 15-25 years.

Since these institutions are autonomous and independent in their functioning, the benefits of economies of scale can never be tapped,
resulting in higher long-run average costs, thus necessitating either more funding by the government or higher tuition fees as indicated by the
recent hike in fees by some of the IIMs.

Further, large universities having different departments and schools enable the exchange of ideas in a much more fruitful manner across
disciplines. For example, most of the US universities have large economics departments outside the business schools from where business
students can take specific economic courses, thus benefitting from the faculties' specialisation.

The importance that the Indian government has given to specialized engineering and management institutes has also resulted in the neglect
of other social and physical sciences.

The new government should take higher education as one of the priority areas for the development of our country's intellectual capital.
Though public universities exist in India, the quality of infrastructure and faculty are worrisome.

It is time that we follow the footsteps of the US and China and create large universities of international standards. As Professor Arthur
Bienenstock of Stanford University points out, a good university should have high-quality post-graduate students who want to learn to perform
research, an intellectual climate that encourages scholarship, facilities in which teaching and research can be performed effectively, adequate
funding, and quality leadership. “

QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL

Right to free and compulsory education between 6-14 years (framework)

NCPCR: NATIONAL COMMSION FOR PROTECTION OF CHILD RIGHTS

1) 1909: GOPAL KRISHNA GOKHLE: HE DEMANDED UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION: BEEN THERE SINCE 1 CENTURY

2) Need to convert to act (Passed in 2009) effective from APRIL 1`st and enforceability

3) Article 45 : Directive Princples ( STATE shall endeavor to provide primary education till 6 years ) PART 4 /22

4) Article 21A: PART 3(in FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS) enforceable

5) 86TH CONSTITUTIONAL AMMENDMENT ACT: MADE EDUCATION A 11TH FUNDAMENTAL DUTY (MOVED FROM THE
DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES (PART 4) OF THE CONSTITUTION TO THE FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES ( 3RD PART ) OF THE
CONSTITUTION

THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS ASSUMED STATES WILL PROVIDE EDUCATION IN 55(CENTRE); 45(STATES)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: DIVISION OF POWER BETWEEN CENTRE AND STATES

PARENTS SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN SENDING CHILDREN. THEY SHOULD ALSO BE PROVIDED SOME OTHER MEANS TO EARN
THE LOSS OF

RAMAN SINGH: CHATTISGARH CM (BJP)

SUBSTANDARD EQUIPMENT:

POLICE: PEOPLE: 1:728

SINGAPORE (1:200)

POLICE ACT OF 1860 – POLICE IS SUBJECT OF STATE. CENTRE WILL DOMINATE : STATE NEEDS CONTROL OF POLICE